Hours earlier, she had consented to take her tiny daughter, Angel, off life support. Angel had bleeding in her brain and wouldn't make it, doctors had told Shuai.

The baby died in Shuai's arms.

Then, the police came.

Shuai was arrested a couple of months later. The charge? Murder and attempted feticide. The reason? Shuai, while pregnant, had tried to kill herself by eating rat poison.

Now, two years after Angel's death, the case of Bei Bei Shuai continues to raise provocative legal and moral questions.

For one, there is debate over whether Shuai's actions were criminal, in part because there are issues of intent — hers and the law's — but also because it's not certain Angel's death resulted from rat poisoning.

But more broadly, the decision by Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry to charge Shuai has thrust the case into the center of one of the most highly charged debates of our time — the rights of women vs. the rights of the unborn children they carry.

Fueled partly by an Internet campaign launched by Shuai's defense attorney, health and women's rights organizations across the country have seized on the Indianapolis woman's case as an example of gender discrimination and an attack on women's reproductive rights. So far, there is no strong counter-push from abortion opponents, but when asked, one said someone should pay for the infant's death.

If Shuai were acquitted based on the evidence at her April 22 trial, the question of whether such prosecutions are constitutional could be unresolved.

Others could face similar charges.

And medical and legal experts say that could lead to dangerous consequences.

Pregnant women, for example, might be afraid to tell doctors about substance abuse or other issues for fear that they'll be prosecuted. Or they might not seek medical help once they become pregnant.

"We open up a Pandora's box of what happens with reproductive rights," said Jessica Waters, an assistant professor at American University whose research focuses on reproductive rights law. "It's the classic slippery slope argument."

Was it murder?

Cooking rice at a Chinese restaurant on a rainy September morning, Shuai, 36, looked nothing like a woman facing murder charges.

She also seemed a world away from the hospital bed where she had tearfully held her daughter. Linda Pence, her lawyer, wouldn't let her talk to the media, but Shuai was pleasant when she greeted visitors, and she smiled as she talked with coworkers.

When Shuai, a Chinese immigrant, ate the rat poison, Pence said, she was desperate. The baby's father, she said, had dumped Shuai and left her crying in a parking lot when she was more than 30 weeks pregnant.

(Photo: Matt Detrich, The Indianapolis Star)

Pence has tried to get the charges dropped, arguing that Shuai didn't intend to kill her baby — she meant to kill herself — so the murder charge is inappropriate. And, she said, the attempted feticide charge is meant for people who attack pregnant women, causing the loss of their babies. It wasn't supposed to be used against mothers who might do something that hurts their babies while they're in the womb.

Pence cited a case in which the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that a woman couldn't be charged with neglect for ingesting cocaine while she was pregnant.

But Curry, a Democrat, said his hands were tied because he thinks Shuai's actions fit the definitions of murder and feticide as the laws are written.

According to Indiana law, it is murder to "knowingly or intentionally kill a fetus that has attained viability." And, "a person who knowingly or intentionally terminates a human pregnancy with an intention other than to produce a live birth or to remove a dead fetus commits feticide, a class B felony."

Even if Shuai were attempting suicide, Curry said, her intent was to kill the baby, too. She left her boyfriend a note that said in Chinese that she was killing herself and "taking this baby, the one you named Crystal, with me," according to court documents.

"In our mind," Curry said, "the literal reading of those statutes could not be more applicable to the circumstances as we believe them to exist and consequently brought those charges."

A Marion Superior Court judge and the Indiana Court of Appeals have declined to drop charges against Shuai, and the appellate court cited the language of the laws as one reason for its decision.

But Pence said she believes Shuai's actions don't fit the definition of either crime.

The baby was born alive, so she was no longer a fetus under the murder and feticide statutes. And after the baby was born, Shuai did nothing to hurt her.

The decision to prosecute

Pence, a former federal prosecutor, has argued that Curry never should have pursued the case. She said prosecutors have discretion, and can choose not to press charges in any given case, especially one like Shuai's where there are so many controversial issues. Shuai's case is also the first of its kind in Indiana, she said, so there's no clear precedent for charging a mother with murder based on her actions during pregnancy.

"Tell me what we're saving society from by spending money keeping her in jail for a year-and-a-half or sending her back to jail for 45 years or more," Pence said. "What are we solving?"

Shawn Boyne, an associate professor at Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis and a former prosecutor, said she agrees with Pence.

"Prosecutors always have the discretion whether or not to bring charges," Boyne said. "We don't have a principle of mandatory prosecution."

Part of a prosecutor's job, she said, is to decide which cases to pursue. They must consider whether a case is worth the time and resources and whether it will deter others from committing the same crime.

Boyne said she doesn't see merit in prosecuting Shuai.

There's no deterrent value, she said, because people who have made up their minds to commit suicide wouldn't think about the potential to face charges.

"In my opinion," Boyne said, "there are other more serious individuals out there committing violent crimes that should take precedence over this prosecution."

Boyne said Curry likely proceeded with the case for political reasons. He may have wanted to avoid criticism from the anti-abortion movement, she said.

But Curry, who supports abortion rights, said that suggestion is "ludicrous." He said his office would consider using its discretion only in cases where the consequences were less serious.

"We're not talking about a situation where it's some low-level offense," he said. "We're talking about a situation where there's a death."

But if Curry wanted to pursue charges, he could have charged her with a lesser crime, such as involuntary manslaughter, and offered her a plea deal that could lead to a sentence of probation and required counseling, Boyne said.

Prosecutors offered Shuai a deal that would have allowed her to plead guilty to attempted feticide and potentially avoid more time behind bars, Curry said. If she had taken it, prosecutors would have dropped the murder charge as part of the deal.

But Pence and Shuai declined the deal. They believe she's innocent.

Evidence raises doubt

The Indiana Court of Appeals allowed Shuai to bond out of jail — a rarity in murder cases — because Pence raised doubt about whether the rat poison caused Angel's death.

The chemical in the rat poison Shuai ate does not cross into the placenta easily because of its molecular structure, according to research cited in court documents. And in the only similar documented case Pence could find both the mother and the baby lived, Pence said.

Pence also cited other potential causes of death, including the indomethacin that was given to Shuai to prevent her from having contractions. The drug can cause hemorrhages in babies.

The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy testified at a hearing that she didn't do any research to see whether the rat poison or the medications killed the baby; she simply assumed the rat poison was to blame after hearing Shuai's story. She also said a blood test performed on the baby couldn't show rat poison was the cause of death because the baby had received blood transfusions, and some of her blood belonged to others.

A dangerous precedent?

The appellate court declined to look at the civil rights issues Shuai and Pence raised, such as whether the prosecution is discriminatory against women.

Suicide isn't a crime for anyone else, so it's discrimination to prosecute pregnant women for it, Pence said. The prosecution also violates Shuai's right to due process, Pence contends, because the case is the first of its kind in Indiana and Shuai had no way of knowing she could face charges.

The court could consider those issues if Shuai were convicted and then appealed. But if she were acquitted and the court didn't consider the issues, the question of whether pregnant women should be prosecuted for actions they take during pregnancy likely would linger.

Waters, the American University professor, said the prosecution signals a shift in the way pregnant women's decisions are viewed through the lens of the law.

In the past, she said, prosecutors have been hesitant to go after women who behave in ways that might be harmful to the fetuses they're carrying. Instead, they've focused on others who harm pregnant women and their babies. But Shuai's case changes that.

"Even if she's acquitted," Waters said, "this opens the door for other women to be prosecuted."

Waters and Shuai's supporters said that such prosecutions lead to some unintended — and dangerous — consequences.

They said women could be scrutinized for any action they take that could be harmful to their unborn babies, even something as simple going for a run or drinking a cup of coffee.

"How far does this go?" Waters said. "Does every action a woman takes while pregnant suddenly become suspect?"

About 80 organizations that focus on a variety of issues from women's health to mental health have submitted court briefs detailing their arguments in support of Shuai.

Women's rights groups also are supporting Shuai. They filed a brief saying they agree with Pence that the prosecution is discriminatory against women.

More than 10,000 people from Australia to New York have signed an online petition to support Shuai. They've left messages of encouragement for her, and sometimes anger at prosecutors.

Anti-abortion advocates, meanwhile, have been silent on the issue.

Micah Clark, executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana, said he thinks groups have stayed out of the case because of the complex issues involved.

"I'm not sure that they're sure what to do with this," he said.

Clark said he doesn't know what to think about the case, either. But he said he can't overlook the fact that the baby died. Shuai could have sought counseling, he said, or given the baby up for adoption.

"We have safe haven laws that would've allowed her to give up her child, no questions asked," he said. "I just think that this child was a victim and there should be some type of penalty for this."

Some of the discussion about the case has turned to Indiana's feticide law.

The federal feticide law includes language that says the law was not meant to be used to prosecute mothers for actions they take that might harm their unborn children. Indiana's law contains no such language.

"You've basically turned abortion jurisprudence on its head," she said. "Abortion can't be legal if you can prosecute pregnant women for harm they may or may not have caused the fetus."

Regardless of what happens with the law, Pence said that if Shuai were convicted, they would appeal until she's exonerated.

"That was probably one of the most joyful moments of my life, to walk a woman out of the Marion County Jail to freedom," Pence said. "And I will do everything possible to ensure that she doesn't go back there again."